The McGuire Sisters

Did You Know?

• The sisters began singing in 1935, when youngest sister Phyllis was four years old, at their mother's church in Miamisburg, Ohio.
• They were inducted into the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
• Phyllis McGuire's Las Vegas mansion included a replica of the Eiffel Tower that rose through the home's roof.

Career in show business

The McGuire Sisters signed with Coral Records in 1952. That same year they appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, and Godfrey subsequently hired them for his other shows, where they remained for seven years. The November 1953 issue of Cosmopolitan referred to them as "Godfrey's Merry McGuires." Most of their Coral recordings from 1953 to 1964 were overseen by arranger and conductor Dick Jacobs.

The sisters were frequently compared to the Andrews Sisters; Maxene Andrews later commented that the McGuires improved once they stopped imitating the Andrews Sisters. While on the Godfrey show, they befriended singer Lu Ann Simms and attended her wedding to music publisher Loring Buzzell in July 1956. Buzzell's firm, Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, provided them with "May You Always" (the best-selling 45 and sheet music of 1959) and "Theme from The Unforgiven (The Need for Love)" (a big hit in 1960).

End to the group's public appearances

The group retired from public appearances in 1968, giving their last performance that year on The Ed Sullivan Show. Phyllis McGuire continued to perform solo for a time. The group's demise is often attributed to Phyllis's long-standing personal relationship with mobster Sam Giancana, though for years she claimed their friendship was strictly platonic; this reportedly led to the group's blacklisting. During one of Giancana's 1960s court appearances for which Phyllis was subpoenaed, Giancana told reporters outside the courthouse that Phyllis knew everything about the rumored unethical behaviors of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert.

Giancana was shot in 1975 by an unknown gunman thought to be Dominic "Butch" Blasi. Giancana asked CIA cut-out Robert Maheu to place a wire in Phyllis's room, suspecting her of having an affair with comedian Dan Rowan; Maheu acquiesced, but the device was not planted because the agent tasked with planting it was arrested. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy prohibited prosecution of the agent and Maheu at the CIA's request. Phyllis resided for decades in a Las Vegas mansion with a beauty parlor, a swan moat, and a replica of the Eiffel Tower rising through the roof.

In a 1980s 20/20 interview, she denied that Giancana funded the home, claiming she invested heavily in oil; she also acknowledged the relationship was a love affair. The sisters reunited in 1986, performing at Toronto's Royal York Hotel, followed by nightclub engagements in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and New York City's Rainbow & Stars. In 1986 they were celebrity panelists on The New Hollywood Squares.

Family

Christine McGuire was married six times, with two children from her first marriage. Her grandson, Army Cpl. Evan Asa Ashcraft, aged 24, was killed in Iraq in 2003. Dorothy McGuire married Sgt. John Henry Brown in 1951, divorcing in 1956; she was romantically linked with singer Julius La Rosa. She later married Lowell James Williamson in 1958, with whom she had two sons.

In popular culture

The 1995 HBO movie Sugartime depicted a romantic relationship between Phyllis McGuire and Sam Giancana, with John Turturro playing Giancana and Mary-Louise Parker playing Phyllis. The Robert Altman film Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean (1982) prominently features the McGuire Sisters' music, with their number-one single "Sincerely" lip-synced by the film's stars. The Sopranos episode "Join the Club" references both the McGuire Sisters and Sam Giancana.